Two campuses within the University of Wisconsin System announced Tuesday they are offering employees a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payout equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

The buyouts at UW-Oshkosh and UW-Green Bay offer the same payout, but the eligibility requirements are different. At UW-Green Bay, the offer is being extended to all employees 55 and older who have at least five years of service. At UW-Oshkosh, employees must be at least 60 and have 25 years of service to the state to be eligible.

Tuesday's announcements bring to four the total number of campuses seeking to reduce their workforce through voluntary buyouts in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first campus to make the offer, followed last week by UW-Superior.(299)

Ron Roenicke finally gives Rickie Weeks a day off

Pittsburgh -- With Rickie Weeks showing no signs of breaking out of his season-long slump, Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke benched his second baseman in favor of Yuniesky Betancourt.

The Brewers open a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park tonight having lost four games in a row and nine of 10, and are going to be hamstrung with leftfielder Ryan Braun on the bench as well with a recurrence of a stiff neck.

As far as Weeks is concerned, he comes in hitting .183 with two home runs and nine runs batted in, and his .211 career average against Pirates starter A.J. Burnett (4 for 19, five strikeouts) isn't terrific.

So, for the first time this season, he'll take a seat. Weeks had been the only Brewers player to start every game.

"He told me before, ‘When you want me off, tell me I’m off. If you ask me whether I want a day off, I’m never going to tell you I need it.’ So I don’t ask him," Roenicke said. "I just thought it was a good day today, so I told him he was off."

When asked if he thought a day off might be a good thing with how things have been going, Weeks didn't hesitate in disagreeing.

"That’s not my M.O.," he said. "I don’t think like that. My whole attitude every time I come to the field is get ready to play."

Roenicke said Weeks would be available to pinch hit tonight. The Pirates start three consecutive left-handers starting tomorrow with Jeff Locke, so it will be interesting to see how Roenicke proceeds with Weeks from here.

From the sound of it, Weeks might not be the automatic in the lineup he once was. And if Betancourt continues to swing the bat well, the situation could become even more interesting.

"We’ll see," Roenicke said. "Hopefully a day off will help him. We need him to swing. We need him in our lineup. It won’t be two days (off). But it’ll be a day, and then we’ll see how it goes after that."

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